The ban was imposed following violence in the African nation earlier this year that threatened the lives of Curt Peterson, executive minister of Covenant World Mission, and Dr. Roger Thorpe, a retired Covenant missionary. The decision to lift the ban was made following continued calm in the region where the Covenant has mission work.
A group from Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Rolling Hills Estates, California, will travel to Congo October 8-19. The team of clergy and lay leaders will visit six sites to acquainted themselves with the country. The church intends to send a work team in February to make physical improvements to the hospital at Loko.
Keith Gustafson, who coordinates Congo programs for the Evangelical Covenant Church, will travel with the Rolling Hills team. He already has left for the country to spend the next several weeks translating reports for the Covenant Church of Congo (CEUM).
In other Congo news:
• Two PCP containers of medical equipment and supplies have recently reached the country. One had been lost by the shipper for a year and recently was found in South Africa. The other was shipped last December by International Aid. Both have now arrived in Gemena, which is as far as they can be transported, given the poor condition of the roads. The freight will be transported to Karawa on smaller trucks.
• Clinics at Zongo, IPOK, Bokonzo, and Bogose Nubea have been completely rehabbed with the partnership’s first grant of $30,000 from the Caris Foundation. Sites to be done with the second grant are Gbado Gboketsa, Botetenza, and Bogene. That work is expected to begin soon.
